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Malia out and about in New York City in mid April.

As weve long debated in these pages, wrestled with as Jacob wrestled with his angel, its tough to know if stars are just like us. Sometimes they behave so much like us that we experience a kind of catharsis, an almost sexual release that makes us feel seen and defined. But other times, its clear that stars really arent like us at all, that they live fabulous and mysterious lives that us mortals can only dimly understand. So weve never been able to definitively decide, have we? If these stars of ours are living lives uncannily similar to our own, or if they, twinkling in the firmament, are doing a whole other thing entirely.

Compounding this vexation is that, in all this pondering, we havent given ourselves time to think about the people past stars, those so famous or important that they transcend celebrity and become a kind of royalty. Such people do exist, of course. Theres literal royalty, like ginger sex ideal Prince Harry. But theres also the unofficial kind, like, say, Malia Obama, former First Daughter, now just a civilian in the world. Except is she? Malia Obama is so famous, from such dynastic stock, that we have to wonder what she really is. Meaning, is Malia Obama just like us?

Turns out, she might be, actually! Page Six, the sweet keening bard of our ages, has a story today about Malia Obama doing something so tragically and beautifully human that it makes us feel an immediate connection to her. You see, Malia Obama lost her cell phone at Lollapalooza. Can you imagine?? Well, of course you can. Because havent we all, at some point, lost our phone at Lollapalooza? Maybe not literally. Maybe it was the Warped Tour or the Kiss 108 Jingle Ball or whatever. But it did happen. We are fallible in exactly that way, losing our phones at events as we were designed by God to do.

Whats more, is that when Malia went to the Apple Store in Chicago (her phone was an iPhone, reader) to replace her phone, she couldnt get one because she didnt know her Apple I.D.! Which makes her even more just like us, because surely none of us ever remember our Apple I.D. or password. I have to change mine almost every time I login! Its some strange aphasia. Although, maybe not that strange, given that Malia Obama has it too. She has the excuse that White House security set up her account when she got her phone, sure. But ignore that minor detail, and many others, and Malia and Iand you!are essentially the same person.

Does that give you any kind of comfort? To know that Malia Obama was at Lollapalooza, just like any old teen, and that she dropped her phone somewhere and it disappeared, just like any old phone? It should. Because, lets face it, in most other ways, Malia Obama is nothing like us. She breathes the rarefied air of the anointed. Doors dont so much open for her as they wink out of existence at the mere mention of her name. But to really think about thatthe sheer and monumental differences between our experiences of the worldis to stare into a kind of existential abyss from which you may never return. So grab onto this pleasing, steadying fact, that at just one moment in our lives, we intersected with Malia Obama. All of our casually lost phones commingled in the same place, like eels in the Sargasso Sea. And then, when the current shifted, we were back to being lowly nobodies, and Malia was back to enjoying the world laid out before her. As is her right.

Anyway. See you at the next Lollapalooza. (Honestly, how many of you knew that was still happening? I certainly didnt!) Lets be careful with our personal items. Losing them may bring us closer to our heroes, but it also means we have to get a new phone.

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Malia Obama Lost Her iPhone at Lollapalooza, Just Like the Rest of Us - Vanity Fair

A federal court struck down a key piece of the Obama administration's climate agenda on Tuesday by saying the Environmental Protection Agency does not have the authority to ban the use of certain chemicals used in air conditioners blamed for exacerbating global warming.

The EPA enacted the rule in question in 2015, responding to research showing hydroflourocarbons, or HFCs, contribute to climate change.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals' 2-1 decision said EPA does not have the authority to enact a 2015 rule-making ending the use of hydrofluorocarbons commonly found in spray cans, automobile air conditioners and refrigerators. The three-judge panel said that because HFCs are not ozone-depleting substances, the EPA could not use a section of the Clean Air Act targeting those chemicals to ban HFCs.

"Indeed, before 2015, EPA itself maintained that Section 612 did not grant authority to require replacement of nonozone-depleting substances such as HFCs," the court wrote.

"EPA's novel reading of Section 612 is inconsistent with the statute as written. Section 612 does not require (or give EPA authority to require) manufacturers to replace non-ozonedepleting substances such as HFCs," said the opinion, written by Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

The Obama administration issued the regulatory changes to correspond with the 1987 Montreal Protocol that sought to stop the depletion of the ozone layer by phasing out another chemical found in aerosols. The 2015 update was part of former President Barack Obama's climate change agenda due to the impact of HFCs on the climate.

"This ruling has significant implications for our industry and we will be monitoring the EPA's response closely," said Stephen Yurek, president and CEO of the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute, whose industry is directly affected by the regulations. "Despite the court's decision, our industry remains committed to ratification and implementation of the Kigali Amendment to globally phase down the use of HFC refrigerants."

Under the Kigali agreement, the U.S. and other countries agreed to phase out HFCs and use alternative chemicals over a number of years. The agreement was seen as an adjunct to the Paris climate change agreement.

The Trump EPA will have to decide whether it will appeal the court's Tuesday ruling, which was brought by HFC manufacturers Chemours Co. and Honeywell International. "We are reviewing the decision," said an EPA representative.

The Kigali Agreement and the HFC rule have not been a specific target of the Trump administration, and given that many appliance manufacturers support the regulations, President Trump may find little in the way of problems with the regulations.

But critics of the Kigali agreement are out there, and they undoubtedly will be pushing for Pruitt to allow the court decision to stick. Myron Ebell with the free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute is one of those voices. He was Trump's EPA transition chief who helped ramp up the agency.

"CEI opposes the Kigali amendment because the purpose of the Montreal Protocol to the Vienna treaty is to protect the ozone layer," Ebell said in May. And the "Kigali amendment hijacks the Montreal Protocol and turns it into a global warming treaty."

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Federal court strikes down EPA rule key to Obama's climate agenda - Washington Examiner

CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- President Trump's administration has opened the door to industry-friendly changes to a sweeping plan imposed by his predecessor to protect a ground-dwelling bird across vast areas of the West.

Wildlife advocates warn that the proposed changes would undercut a hard-won struggle to protect the greater sage grouse.

Representatives of the ranching and energy industries cheered the policy shift as needed to give states flexibility.

A document outlining the recommended changes was released Monday by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

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Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, confirmed that she received a phone call from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke over her vote on health care, saying t...

It recognized for the first time the importance of livestock grazing on sage grouse habitat, said Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association.

It also backed away from requirements to keep rangeland grasses and shrubs at a prescribed minimum height, which ranchers had complained was arbitrary.

"I was very pleased with what I saw there in terms of the tone," Magagna said.

The ground-dwelling sage grouse has lengthy, pointed tail feathers and is known for the male's elaborate courtship display in which air sacs in the neck are inflated to make a popping sound.

Millions of sage grouse once populated the West but development, livestock grazing and an invasive grass that encourages wildfires has reduced the bird's population to fewer than 500,000.

States affected by the conservation plan are California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

Just how much Zinke intends to tinker with the plan that was years in the making remains to be seen.

It was hashed out under President Obama and unveiled in 2015 as a solution to keeping the sage grouse off the endangered species list following a decade-long population decline caused by disease and pressure on the birds' habitat from energy development, grazing and wildfires.

The proposed changes, the result of a 60-day review of the plan by Zinke's agency, could give states wiggle room in areas such as setting population goals for sage grouse and drawing boundaries of recognized sage grouse habitat.

Advocacy groups such as The Wilderness Society and National Wildlife Federation said the proposal was a backdoor attempt to allow unfettered oil and gas development that ignored previous scientific studies showing that drilling too close to sage grouse breeding areas would harm the birds.

"Wholesale changes to the plans are not necessary and could derail years of hard work," National Wildlife Federation President Collin O'Mara said in a statement. "We cannot fall victim to the false dichotomy that pits wildlife conservation against the administration's energy development goals."

The birds inhabit parts of 11 states including large swaths of Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and Nevada - big ranching states that include areas with vast wind energy and gas drilling potential.

Wyoming has a larger number of greater sage grouse than any other state and keeping the bird off the endangered list remains a priority, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead said.

"We've come a long ways to get to this point," Mead said. "As we make changes - and certainly I think there's room for improvement - we have to move cautiously because we don't want to get to the point where the bird is listed."

Wyoming officials are glad the Trump administration has been talking to them about sage grouse policy, and the proposed changes include improvements, Mead said.

Officials remain concerned, however, by how the administration wants to set population goals for sage grouse. The birds are difficult to count and their numbers can fluctuate significantly from year to year in response to weather patterns, Mead said.

"We want to move cautiously as to not disrupt the great work that has been done by so many over the many years," Mead said.

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter said Zinke's announcement marked an appropriate step toward giving the state more power to manage sage grouse. Idaho, along with Utah and Nevada, had filed a lawsuit challenging the Obama-era conservation plans for the birds.

"My staff and I stand ready to roll up our sleeves and work with the Department of the Interior to bring the federal plans into alignment with Idaho's science-based conservation plan," Otter said in a statement.

The proposed changes drew a muted reaction from some other Western governors who had been heavily involved in crafting conservation plans for the birds.

Democrat Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, who co-chaired a federal-state sage grouse task force established in 2011, was still reviewing Zinke's announcement, according to spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery.

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Gov. John Hickenlooper, D-Colorado, and Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, discuss how their states are finding solutions to the many problems they face d...

In Nevada, Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval didn't have any immediate comment. Sandoval had worked closely with former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to develop sage grouse protection plans for the state.

Sandoval, Mead and Hickenlooper met with Zinke in April and urged him to coordinate with states before changing the Obama-era plans.

Areas where sage grouse habitat and gas drilling overlap include the upper Green River Basin of western Wyoming, home of some of the biggest onshore natural gas fields in the U.S.

A third gas field, the Normally Pressured Lance field, could add another 3,500 wells in a 220-square-mile area. Drilling could begin next year if the U.S. Bureau of Land Management signs off.

Jonah Energy LLC recognizes the existence of sage grouse winter range in the southern part of its proposed gas field about 200 miles northeast of Salt Lake City, said Paul Ulrich, government affairs director at the Denver-based petroleum company.

"From our perspective, that definitely presents challenges but also provides an opportunity to do what we've done from day one, which is follow the science," he said.

Read more here:
Obama-era greater sage grouse protections face changes under Trump - CBS News

Tyler Eschberger | Daily News Sen. Rand Paul at Middlesboro ARH for a roundtable discussion concerning important healthcare issues.

Middlesboro ARH welcomed Sen. Rand Paul to a roundtable discussion concerning ways to improve and implement healthcare needs of the hospital and Bell County.

Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE) Community CEO Michael Slusher introduced Paul to the room of various physicians and hospital personnel and opened the floor for discussion on different market forces the hospital has found challenging.

MARH Chief Regulatory Affairs Officer Vicki Thompson was the first to address Paul regarding the patient population of the area.

Bell County ranks 115 out of 120 counties representing the overall health condition. Theres a lot of reasons for that. We have a higher rate of obesity, smokers. 38 percent of our counties lives below the poverty line; 52 percent of that being our children. And that is very distressing to all of us, she said.

Another problem we face here in Bell Countyour opioid crisis. We at one point from 2012 and 2015 were the second-ranked county for the worst overdose and overdose deaths here in Kentucky with heroin and narcotics being the main culprits.

Discussion of the shift from opioid addiction to heroin addiction was raised, with Paul asking if the medical community shared some guilt with having too many people on opioids to begin with.

Slusher stated that he didnt feel guilt was the right term, citing the pain is the fifth vital sign push as part of the problem with opioids.

Pharmacist Steve Weaver stated that the hospital is now using the drug Naloxone as a way to treat opioid dependence and overdose. The drug is prescription free. A protocol has been developed for dispensing Naloxone, he said. First responders, school workers and concerned family members are all able to receive the product with the proper education on the subject.

I think the drug company shares some blame in this too for saying Oxycontin is no big deal and its not really addictive and this a great drug for your patients, they wont get addicted to it. That may have been a lie, said Rand.

Paul went on to say that the spread of opioids was more rapid in areas of high Medicaid and high disability.

Disability you can understand, theyre taking medication for painin most of the counties that have expanded Medicaid they have a worse problem now because, again, more legal opioids because its free. We do need to think through what we can do to make it better, said Paul.

Reach Tyler Eschberger at 606-248-1010, ext. 1126 or on Twitter @TylerEsch89.

Tyler Eschberger | Daily News Sen. Rand Paul at Middlesboro ARH for a roundtable discussion concerning important healthcare issues.

http://www.harlandaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_rand.jpgTyler Eschberger | Daily News Sen. Rand Paul at Middlesboro ARH for a roundtable discussion concerning important healthcare issues.

Discusses opioid issues

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Paul visits Middlesboro ARH - The Harlan Daily Enterprise

Transhumanists are curiosity addicts. If its new, different, untouched, or even despised, were probably interested in it. If it involves a revolution or a possible paradigm shift in human experience, you have our full attention. We are obsessed with the mysteries of existence, and we spend our time using the scientific method to explore anything we can find about the evolving universe and our tiny place in it.

Obsessive curiosity is a strange bedfellow. It stems from a profound sense of wanting something better in lifeof not being satisfied. It makes one search, ponder, and strive for just about everything and anything that might improve existence. In the 21st century, that leads one right into transhumanism. Thats where Ive landed right now: A journalist and activist in the transhumanist movement. Im also currently a Libertarian candidate for California Governor. I advocate for science and tech-themed policies that give everyone the opportunity to live indefinitely in perfect health and freedom.

Politics aside, transhumanism is the international movement of using science and technology to radically change the human being and experience. Its primary goal is to deliver and embrace a utopian techno-optimistic worlda world that consists of biohackers, cyborgists, roboticists, life extension advocates, cryonicists, Singularitarians, and other science-devoted people.

Transhumanism was formally started in 1980s by philosophers in California. For decades it remained low key, mostly discussed in science fiction novels and unknown academic conferences. Lately, however, transhumanism seems to be surging in popularity. What once was a smallish band of fringe people discussing how science and technology can solve all humanitys problems has now become a burgeoning social mission of millions around the planet.

At the recent FreedomFest, the worlds largest festival on liberty, transhumanism was a theme explored in numerous panels, including some I had the privilege of being on. Libertarian transhumanism is one of the fastest growing segments of the libertarian movement. A top priority for transhumanists is to have freedom from the government so radical science experiments and research can go on undisturbed and unregulated.

So why are so many people jumping on the transhumanist bandwagon? I think it has to do with the mishmash of tech inundating and dominating our daily lives. Everything from our smartphone addictions to flying at 30,000 feet in jet airplanes to Roombas freaking out our pets in our homes. Nothing is like it was for our forbearers. In fact, little is like it was even a generation ago. And the near future will be many times more dramatic: driverless cars, robotic hearts, virtual reality sex, and telepathy via mind-reading headsets. Each of these technologies is already here, and in some cases being marketed to billions of people. The world is shifting under our feetand libertarian transhumanism is a sure way to navigate the chaos to make sure we arrive at the best future possible.

My interest in transhumanism began over 20 years ago when I was a philosophy and religion student at Columbia University in New York City. We were assigned to read an article on life extension techniques and the strange field of cryonics, where human beings are frozen after theyve died in hopes of reviving them with better medicine in the future. While Id read about these ideas in science fiction before, I didnt realize an entire cottage industry and movement existed in America that is dedicated to warding off death with radical science. It was an epiphany for me, and I knew after finishing that article I was passionately committed to transhumanism and wanted to help it.

However, it wasnt until I was in the Demilitarized Zone of Vietnam, on assignment for National Geographic Channel as a journalist, that I came to dedicate my life to transhumanism. Walking in the jungle, my guide tackled me and I fell to the ground with my camera. A moment later he pointed at the half-hidden landmine I almost stepped on. Id been through dozens of dangerous experiences in the over 100 countries I visited during my twenties and early thirtieshunting down wildlife poachers with WildAid, volcano boarding in the South Pacific, and even facing a pirate attack off Yemen on my small sailboat where I hid my girlfriend in the bilge and begged masked men with AK47s not to shoot me. But this experience in Vietnam was the one that forced a U-turn in my life. Looking at the unexploded landmine, I felt like a philosophical explosive had gone off in my head. It was time to directly dedicate my skills and hours to overcoming biological human death.

I returned home to America immediately and plunged into the field of transhumanism, reading everything I could on the topic, talking with people about it, and preparing a plan to contribute to the movement. I also began by writing my libertarian-minded novel The Transhumanist Wager, which went on to become a bestseller in philosophy on Amazon and helped launched my career as a futurist. Of course, a bestseller in philosophy on Amazon doesnt mean very many sales (theres been about 50,000 downloads to date), but it did mean that transhumanism was starting to appear alongside the ideas of Plato, Marx, Nietzsche, Ayn Rand, Sam Harris, and other philosophers that inspired people to look outside their scope of experience into the unknown.

And transhumanism is the unknown. Bionic arms, brain implants ectogenesis, artificial intelligence, exoskeleton suits, designer babies, gene editing tech. These technologies are no longer part of some Star Trek sequel, but are already here or being worked on. They will change the world and how we see ourselves as human beings. The conundrum facing society is whether were ready for this. Transhumanists say yes. But America may not welcome that.

In fact, the civil rights battle of the century may be looming because of coming transhumanist tech. If conservatives think abortion rights are unethical, how will they feel about scientists who want to genetically combine the best aspects of species, including humans and animals together? And should people be able to marry their sexbots? Will transhumanist Christians try to convert artificial intelligence and lead us to something termed a Jesus Singularity? Should we allow scientists to reverse aging, something researchers have already had success with in mice? Finally, as we become more cyborg-like with artificial hips, cranial implants, and 3D-printed organs, should we rename the human species?

Whether people like it or not, transhumanism has arrived. Not only has it become a leading buzzword for a new generation pondering the significance of merging with machines, but transhumanist-themed columns are appearing in major media. Celebrity conspiracy theorists like Mark Dice and Alex Jones bash it regularly, and even mainstream media heavyweights like John Stossel, Joe Rogan, and Glenn Beck discuss it publicly. Then theres Google hiring famed inventor Ray Kurzweil as lead engineer to work on artificial intelligence, or J. Craig Ventures new San Diego-based genome sequencing start-up (co-founded with Peter Diamandis of the X-Prize Foundation and stem cell pioneer Robert Hariri) which already has 70 million dollars in financing.

Its not just companies either. Recently, the British Parliament approved a procedure to create babies with material from three different parents. Even President Obama, before he left office, jumped in the game by giving DARPA $70 million dollars to develop brain chip technology, part of Americas multi-billion dollar BRAIN Initiative. The future is coming fast, people around the world are realizing, and theres no denying that the transhumanist age fascinates tens of millions of people as they wonder where the species might go and what health benefits it might mean for society.

At the end of the day, transhumanism is still really focused on one thing: satisfying that essential addiction to curiosity. With science, technology, and a liberty-minded outlook as our tools, the species can seek out and even challenge the very nature of its being and place in the universe. That might mean the end of human death by mid-century if governments allow the science and medicine to develop. It will likely mean the transformation of the species from biological entities into something with much more tech built directly into it. Perhaps most important of all, it will mean we will have the chance to grow and evolve with our families, friends, and loved ones for as long as we like, regardless how weird or wild transhumanist existence becomes.

Zoltan Istvan is the author of The Transhumanist Wager, and a Libertarian candidate for Governor in California.

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The Growing World of Libertarian Transhumanism | The American ... - The American Conservative